Apparently, the grocery stores were extra-busy this past weekend, due to people buying food/snacks for the Superbowl. So I'm curious as to what are some of your favorite snack items?62 responses total.
This may be a frivolous item but still, so many Americans do snack between meals or in the evening while watching tv, doing stuff with friends, or hanging out online.
My typical snacks in a workday are apples, pears, or peanuts. I also enjoy a few bottles of 710ml water throughout the day. For the superbowl, I grilled some carne asada and chicken breasts then cut them up with scissors into bowls. I also chopped up some roma tomatoes and mixed that with coriander, pepper, salt, and garlic then split that and put made one hot with chopped salerno pepper and tobasco. I grated some cheddar and heated up some veggie no-fat refried beans, too. Put out some sour cream. Heated tortillas in a tortillas dish with a lil water in the microwave. Everybody enjoyed it and got fat.
Tod, what's carne asada? I *think* carne is something with a bit of spiceness, but I don't know what the asada is. I wasn't too hungry for most of the day yesterday so I hadn't eaten anything since about 2pm. In the 2nd half of the game, I did get a bit hungry but not enough for a meal--so I just made up one of those mini-bags of popcorn. Popcorn has been one of my longtime favorite snacks [since I was a kid]. Back in my late teens, someone gave me a popcorn cookbook that I still have. Another somewhat frequent snack are pretzels. I do like potato chips [the plain ones are best], tortilla chips, and fritos but I rarely buy those because I know they'll get eaten! So if/when I do get some, I buy the smaller bags. Nachos are good, too [sometimes I use fritos as the base instead of the tortilla chips]. I won't bother listing the sweets, other than ice cream being the favorite. When I'm out somewhere, like with friends, I usually get an appetizer [and split it if I can] or I just get a side dish from the menu. To drink, these days I drink mostly water though occasionally I'll have tea, milk, or once in awhile, a pop.
Carne is meat.
I am partial to Chex party mix, only I make my own, no prepackaged stuff. Buy some wheat and corn chex boxes, mix in mini pretzels, peanuts, cashews, cheetos, cheeze-its, potato chips, whatever else is handy. Add red pepper, shake and serve :) I also like fondue, although I no longer have a working electric fondue maker :(
I like fritos and sometimes wonder why the frito-lay company doesnt market them as being "natural" since the ingredients are so simple (I think the ingredients are corn, corn oil, and salt. ) One time when I was in California around a bunch of hippy mothers (my friends mothers play group in fact), I was eating some fritos and offered some to the kids. One of the kids mothers gave me this whole lecture about how she doesnt give her kid "junk food" like fritos. Then she went into the car to get the organic corn chips for the kids. I was just going to let it go, of course, because who wants to make snippy comments about Fritos of all things? But then she looked at me and said in a loud snearing voice, "I dont eat anything I cant pronounce" I looked at the bag and said "corn, oil, salt" Then the other mothers didnt believe me and had to have a look and they were all surprised and one said she felt a little foolish paying more than twice as much for the other brand from Whole Foods. I quietly filed the incident away in my "Left wing millionare hippies - out of touch with reality" story file in my brain. Anyways, the really obnoxious thing is that I like the more expensive brand much better because they use less salt and less oil. The only reason I even had fritos was because we stopped at a gas station and I was *really* hungry so there werent a lot of choices. I mean I like fritos ok but generally think they use too much oil and salt so the chips are kind of heavy and they make a person very thirsty because of all the salt. And trust me, I LOVE salt so if I think something is too salty, it is very salty.
Kroger currently has 1.3 lb organic non-GMO yellow or blue (or beet-red) corn chips, very low salt, for $3.50. Very tasty too. We had a bag for supper to celebrate having a new neighbor on Saturday.
re #3 Tod, what's carne asada? I *think* carne is something with a bit of spiciness but I don't know what the asada is. Carne Asada=BBQ steak(usually thin cuts of skirt steak) I used thin cuts of sirloin tip beef for ours then after it was cooked I cut it into strips with scissors.
I usually have an afternoon snack of chips and salsa. A problem is that I want low-fat, baked, chips. For a while there were Tostito baked chips with 1 gm fat/oz. These disappeared so I'm using Meijer baked torilla chips with 2 gm fat/oz. If anyone knows of baked chips with 1 gm fat/oz, I'd appreciate knowing of them.
re #9 I don't have a quick answer on that but I can recommend alternatives: rice cakes, unsalted lowfat saltine crackers, thick cucumber slices, and celery sticks.
Rane, you can buy raw frozen corn tortillas and bake them briefly in a toaster oven. (don't overdo it or they will catch on fire, which happened to Jim). Or buy the masa harina and make your own tortillas. Or pick your own corn and scrape it off the cob when it is dry (flour corn not sweet corn) then soak it overnight in a lye solution (to nixtamalize it and increase vitamin content) and then boil it an hour and rinse it repeatedly and grind it on a metate and cook on a griddle. This latter method produces very sweet tasting tortillas but is rather time consuming. You can also grow the corn. We have seed for Mexican green cord (dent variety). Corn contains oil.
(Thanks folks...but all I really seek is just lower fat chips. Also, the ground is currently too hard for planting corn.)
It is very very easy to stick a couple of raw corn tortillas in a medium oven and bake them for a few minutes without adding oil or salt. If you want smaller pieces use a scissors to cut them up first into triangles (or if you can find square tortillas cut them into squares).
I second the first part of what Sindi said. As in the first sentence in 11.
I'm not sure I would gain much. Tortillas have about 0.8 gm fat/oz, but are ca 50% water, so drying them will make tht 1.6 gm fat/oz. In fact, that be why the Meijer tortilla chips are 2 gm fat/oz. (Data from http://www.recipezaar.com/library/getentry.zsp?id=657)
So are you looking for tortilla chips made from defatted corn? If so, why?
[This is now item 236 in the cooking/food conference as well as item 107 Agora conference-winter addition, 2007.]
When I'm in the mood for an easy 'good-for-you' snack, I like easy things like grapes, or strawberries when I want something a bit on the sweeter side or some easy veggies with ranch dressing as a dip. [baby carrots, grape tomatoes, celery, green/red/or-yellow peppers are all good.
I like celery with peanut butter. I also like toast as a snack. And cheese and crackers. Sometimes I skip dinner and just have a snack instead but then perhaps, it isnt a snack and is actually my dinner! One time a friend of mine was talking to me about her husband. She said that before they got married, he would sometimes come home and have cheese and crackers FOR DINNER! Imagine *that*? I just had to laugh because it seems like a perfectly good dinner to me especially if one adds some fruit or a veggie to it.
I miss the baked Tostito chips, too. I've seen some with a "touch of lime," but I want them plain. Since I try (not always successfully) to limit my fat intake, I generally avoid chips. Cheese and crackers are my preferred between-meal (or instead-of meal) nosh.
better scrub those crackers off your list.
Re #16: as I wrote, I am looking for baked "unflavored" chips with 1 gm fat/oz, or less.
re #20, 21: the cheese, too, for that matter. :-(
As I said, "not always successfully." :(
The 'lime' is not a fruit but limestone, which is reacted with the corn to increase the amount of an amino acid in it.
On the corn chips, the touch of lime is the fruit. A current fade is corn chips with lime juice flavoring. They're ok on occasion, but I generally prefer my corn chips plain. We often do corn chips and homemade salsa and/or guacamole. STeve makes a kick-ass salsa and my guacamole gets rav reviews. We also keep popcorn around for spur of the moment snacks. I try to keep things like fruit and veggies around as well. Green grapes are great frozen. We also like to buy cans of fruit when they are on sale and pop them in the freezer until they are just barely frozen. As good or better than ice cream.
Re #25: in this case, it really is the fruit lime, but the expression is "hint of lime". See http://www.neckofwoods.com/wp/archives/date/2004/01/
How much vitamin C comes from the 'lime'? Can you taste lime fruit?
I can. I love those chips. And I don't eat them for servings of Vitamin C.
My favorite snack is gardettos. It's a mix of pretzels and rye chips and french bread sticks. It's been a favorite of mine for years and i don't think i'll ever loose interest in it.
I'm also big on shrimp cocktail, especially if one knows how to make really good cocktail sauce.
> make really good cocktail sauce. I do... 1. Take Heinz cocktail sauce bottle. 2. Tip upside down.
My choice of snacks varies with what's at home - from cake rusks to "mathries" (i'm not even sure how to describe tehm - deep fried something made with wheat flour is closest I can come to)
Isnt cocktail sauce just ketchup and horse radish?
re 31: I have a great recipie (not sure if I posted in kitchen or not, I think I did in an appetizer item) for a fiesta shrimp coctail which is my favorite way to do it now. It's not the cocktail sauce, that's the same, but you marinate the shrimp in stuff.
Jeanne, I bet it is fabulous!
For a sweet and salty snack: melt a bag of chocolate chips in the microwave and then stir in a bag of small pretzels. Stir til pretzels are coated. Spread them on a wax-papered cookie sheet and place in freezer for about a half an hour to harden the chocolate. Break into pieces as some of the pretzels will be 'stuck' together, place in a ziplock bag for easy storage.
resp:37 that sounds yummy!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N2mlViucKY
[re38, it was one of those things I made up on the spur of the moment when I wanted to find a way to use up some leftover white choc. chips-and had almost a full bag of pretzels.]
(Probably cheaper than a package of chocolate-covered pretzels. :)
While doing my grocery shopping yesterday [had to go before the snowstorm!], I was able to get a 'name-brand' bag of pretzels on sale instead of having to resort to the store brand. It doesn't take much to thrill me these days. Ok, I'm rambling; I'll shut up for now.
Pecans in the shell, $1/bag from Kroger.
Lately, I really like the jumbo crazy sized braeburn apples from WinCo foods.
1. Popcorn. I have so much PopSecret in my cupboard it isnt even funny. 2. Potato Chips. I've become a potato chip snob, and I usually seek out different brands, although potato chips are basically the same. I love Better Made for some odd reason. 3. Wise Cheez Waffies and Jay's Cheese Wheels. These are little cheese sandwiches that are totally salty, but very addictive. I found the cheese waffies at Barry Bagels here in Toledo, and the Cheese Wheels can be found at the Alexis Rd Meijer gas station 4.Watermelon. Meijer has these little bowls for 1.75 and it's a pretty decent pick-me-up. 5. Salsa and chips. See #1. I have a TON of salsa. There is a brand of chips from Mansfield, named Jones who has an odd guarantee. If for some reason you dont like them, they will come to your house and pick them up of course in the Mansfield area only, but I think it's pretty cool to have a guarantee like that. 6. Pretzel Balls, and chocolate pretzel balls. Meijer in Bowling Green got rid of thier stock of chocolate pretzel balls for .50 cents a bag, and true to form, I bought 6 bags of them. They are damn good. I also on occaision eat pretzels.
re45: there's one of the Orville Redenbacher kinds of popcorn that I really like [microwave form]. But nothing beats Orville using an old-fashioned popcorn popper with a bit of salt and butter. Too bad I no longer have a popper [er, maybe that's a good thing.]. I like the Tostido's [sp?] brand of chips to use with salsa, though my salsa needs to be mild. There was a kind of salsa that I brought awhile back that I really really liked; I wish I remember what the brand was. It was like home-made.
We gleaned Orville Redenbacher corn in N. Indiana one year.
Healthy Choice Butter Flavor Popcorn - 6 cups (37g) - 120 calories, 3g fat, 25 carbs, 5g fiber, 4g protein OR Hot Air popped with some non-stick spray butter flavor and a dash of salt
I love air popped popcorn. I dont like putting butter on it because it makes it too greasy. But I dont have an airpopper anymore. OH well. Luckily there are microwave popcorn brands that arent too greasy.
I had an air popper for awhile; I didn't like the popcorn plain at all. So I used that 'I can't believe its not butter' spray--and sprayed the popcorn as it came out. :-)
Though I don't use regular corn as a snack item, corn is probably my favorite cooked vegetable [I know its a bit higher in carbs but it does still provide some fiber.]
Why do you need a branded popcorn to microwave it?
Because some brands taste better than others. Fot microwavable popcorn, it's partly the corn kernels and partly the 'stuff' in the bag that it's popped in. Popcorn brands can make a difference in a regular oil-based popper, too.
I dont need a branded popcorn for microwaving but it is easier than finding space in my kitchen for a bowl suitabe for microwaving popcorn
Maybe I'm just a popcorn snob. :-)
How do you microwave popcorn in a bowl?
I have a microwaveable popcorn bowl, actually,not sure what's different about it, but I've had it for about 20 years.
re #57 I found a couple good directions: one uses a bowl with a paper plate on top and the other uses a brown lunch sack stapled shut The brown lunch sack recipe had feedback and one person claimed theirs burned up so they tossed it on the porch. Here's the end result http://www.flickr.com/photos/ross-hershberger/349792527/
resp:56 - you put the popcorn into the bowl and put the special lid with vents on top of it. Then you press the buttons with the numbers on the microwave and when it dings, you take the popcorn out.
Re 58> Doesn't the paper plate fly off during the popping?
I usually take my popcorn to the gas station/milk depot. They don't mind. Sterling has some of the best milk around because it's usually still good 3 days past the expiration date. Try THAT with Kroger milk.
re #60 Dunno..haven't tried yet. I suspect I'll try the brown bag method first since the bowl method sounds like it requires 5 minutes longer
You have several choices: